1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for evaluating a regenerated cartilage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Concerning congenital morphological abnormalities in the maxillofacial region or maxillofacial defects after malignant tumor excision, tissue restoration and reconstruction surgeries have been performed by the autologous implantation. However, problems such as the limitation of the size of the tissue which can be collected and the invasion of the site to be transplanted have remained in the autogenous implantation. Particularly, clinical application of cartilage tissue engineering is relatively progressed. Currently, autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) is widely spread. Swedish researchers first reported the original method of ACI in 1995. The original method of ACI is a method comprising injecting autogenously-cultured chondrocytes into the local defect of articular cartilage due to athletic injury as a cell suspension and covering the defect with a periosteal patch in order to prevent leakage.
Concerning defects and abnormalities in the maxillofacial region, cases of regenerative surgery, such as augmentation rhinoplasty by the silicone implant as well as applications where a suspension of autologous chondrocytes was injected into the saddle nose have been reported.
For example, gene expression and surface markers have been used for the evaluation of the characteristics of the cultured chondrocytes. However, these markers are lack of quantitative performance. Thus, it is currently necessary to sacrifice a part of a group of cells which is intended to be finally obtained.
The technologies related to such technologies are described in, for example, the following references.    Brittberg M, Lindahl A, Nilsson A, Ohlsson C, Isaksson O, Peterson L. 1994. Treatment of deep cartilage defect in the knee with autologous chondrocytes transplantation. N Engl J Med 331(14):889-895.    Yanaga H, Yanaga K, Imai K, Koga M, Soejima C, Ohmori K. 2006. Clinical application of cultured autologous human auricular chondrocytes with autologous serum for craniofacial or nasal augmentation and repair. Plast Reconstr Surg 117(6):2019-2030.